GOP leaders like Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee & Evangelical Elites push Criminal Justice Reform that is really nothing more than releasing criminals even as crime surges across America.
Tucker Carlson defined Criminal Justice Reform during his Fox News program. According to Carlson, “Criminal Justice Reform—that means letting violent people out of prison early.” Carlson said that Tennessee Governor Bill Lee ran and was elected on a platform promoting Criminal Justice Reform.
“In pursuit of that effort, he recently declined to endorse a so-called Truth In Sentencing Bill, which would have required people convicted of violent crimes to serve their sentences,” Carlson said. “As Lee said last year, ‘There are too many people in prison who don’t need to be there.’ OK, what are their names? They never give us their names. It would be interesting to read a list of names of all the people let out early thanks to Bill Lee and guilty liberals like him and tell us which ones don’t deserve to be in prison. Ezekiel Kelly? Do you feel good about that? Most voters are sick of it at this point.”
Tucker is right. Most voters are sick of this. However, this problem runs much deeper than the GOP. Evangelical Christian organizations are pushing the same perverted Criminal Justice Reform that puts violent criminals back on our streets.
For example, lifelong Democrat Russell Moore while then president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) hosted Gov. Bill Lee for a conversation between Moore and Lee. Criminal Justice Reform was discussed.
According to KT Bill Lee said, “My sense is we incarcerate too many of the wrong people for the wrong reasons.”
Gov. Lee is also pro-refugee and ignored concerns expressed by Republicans about the safety of allowing more refugees into the state. Gov. Lee challenged state leaders and even the Trump Administration goal of reducing refugees to make the state and country safer. In other words, Lee puts others ahead of the safety of Americans and the people of Tennessee.
Also, in 2019 the ERLC hosted a Bill Lee spokesman at a Criminal Justice Reform event for the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Now, most people think of the SBC as conservative—and they are right about the folks in the pew; however, too many SBC Elites are like Russell Moore—closet Democrats.
The 2019 Criminal Justice Reform event featured Daniel Darling—an SBC hack now leading the Land Center at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS). Darling argued for rehabilitation instead of locking up criminals.
According to BP, “[I]t’s easy for us to kind of put out of our mind the incarcerated population — sort of throw away the key, lock them up and don’t think about them,” said Daniel Darling, them the ERLC’s vice president for communications.
Whatever. But then he delivers a stunning statement.
“Simply incarcerating a lot of people doesn’t actually make us safer,” Darling said.
Speak for yourself.
Locking up criminals makes people safer and knowing that violent offenders like Ezekiel Kelly and Cleotha Henderson are behind bars demonstrably made Memphis safer!
Keeping criminals out of prison is the goal of Democrats and naturally the ERLC under Russell Moore was on board with that insane policy. In fact, the ERLC signed the Justice Declaration which had as one of its goals, “Advocate for proportional punishment, including alternatives to incarceration, that protects public safety, fosters accountability and provides opportunities to make amends.”
They always add the fake language about protecting public safety but that is never the goal. The goal is to keep criminals out of prison—that’s the reason they want “alternatives.”
Signatories of the Justice Declaration included Russell Moore and NAE chief Walter Kim. Also, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS) President Daniel Akin signed the pro-criminal Justice Declaration as did Nathan Finn (now SBC Recording Secretary) and then Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) Provost now at BIOLA Matthew Hall.
In other words, the signers list contain Woke, Woke, and Woke along with a few useful idiots of evangelicalism.
But Criminal Justice Reform is still a favorite talking point among Evangelical Elites.
This is something we will explore in the future. However, for now, it is enough to show that GOP Elites like Bill Lee in combination with SBC Elites have made America less safe by promoting Criminal Justice Reform that is more pro-criminal than pro-victim or pro-keeping citizens safe.
Bottom Line: People are dead because of Letting Criminals Out of Prison
One SBC leader summarized the problem involving criminal justice reform in a tweet. He said, “A mother just had her face blown off in front of her kid b/c a violent offender had been unsafely released and went on a shooting spree in Memphis. Evangelicals should think long and hard before arguing for criminal justice reform, reduced sentences, or bail reform right now.”
Exactly right.
These policy initiatives began in the 2010s and today we see the bitter fruit born of pro-crime policies masquerading as Criminal Justice Reform. The same foolish policies promoted by Evangelicals are pursued by George Soros funded Distract Attorneys—and none other than former Attorney General Bill Barr warned in 2019 violent crime would surge.
Barr said, “They are following policies that are ultimately going to lead to an increase of violent crime and more victims.”